Mantis is working alongside the Picasso Network and a number of industry-leading researchers to perform cutting-edge research relating to our products.

If you’re interested in the current research we’re developing in collaboration with our partners, you’re in the right place. Read this article to find out the answers to the following questions:

• What is the Request for Proposal (RFP) Program?

• What are the current RFPs and who is working on them?

• How can I hear more directly from these research partners?

• How do these RFPs align with the Picasso and Mantis architecture and vision?

Earlier this year, the Composable Foundation (the organization behind Mantis and the Picasso Network) announced the launch of the Research Request for Proposal (RFP) Program. This initiative is a part of our efforts to be working in the open, providing the community with clear insight into the research and development we are doing. Moreover, the RFP program has enabled us to provide more structure to our research endeavors, which have been a focus at Mantis and Picasso since the projects were established.

Specifically, each RFP represents a research question that Mantis and Picasso are investigating. Data collection and analysis and/or experiments for each RFP are targeted at providing answers to these research questions.

Through our RFP program, our team has joined forces with industry-leading researchers to look for answers to some of the most pressing questions in the DeFi space. We are incredibly pleased with the high level of interest we have had in our RFPs, with most of these projects now assigned to research collaborators.

A complete list of our current RFPs and who is working on them is provided below:

1. Designing Solvers to Provide Optimal Solutions for Cross-Domain Intents

   1. Researcher: Bruno Mazorra

2. An Options Protocol for Pre-Reserving Cross-Domain Blockspace

   1. Researchers: Matheus Ferreira, Bruno Mazorra

3. Making Previously Incompatible Chains IBC-Capable

   1. Researchers: Miguel Matos & team at INESC-ID/Universidade de Lisboa

4. A Scalable, Faster CosmWasm STM Product

   1. Researchers: Miguel Matos & team at INESC-ID/Universidade de Lisboa

5. A Fast Consensus for Cosmos SDK Chains

   1. Researchers: Miguel Matos & team at INESC-ID/Universidade de Lisboa

6. Valuing Cross-Chain Bundles and MEV

   1. Researchers: Zeshun Shi

A few other pending RFPs are also coming soon.

We will be hosting ask me anything (AMA) talks on X with our research partners. Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements about these AMAs.

At first glance, it may seem like our RFPs seem a bit disjointed from one another. However, these RFPs actually are all individual pieces of the puzzle of actualizing cross-chain bridging, intents, and more. All of our RFPs tie into different components of Mantis (our cross-chain intent settlement framework) and the Picasso Network (a cross-chain IBC-based bridging system).

To understand how all of these RFPs fit together, let’s first recap the Mantis v1 architecture:

1. intents (preferences for a cross-chain transaction) are submitted to the Mantis interface via the Mantis rollup directly or via another IBC-connected chain like Solana or Ethereum.

2. User funds are escrowed on the source chain or the rollup (where the intent is submitted).

3. All intents then flow to the Mantis rollup. From here, a smart contract on the Mantis rollup sends intents to an off-chain auctioneer.

4. Information on intents is sent to solvers.

5. Solvers submit solutions (e.g. the output amount of a swap) for user intents to the rollup.

6. Solutions are scored off-chain by the auctioneer.

7. Once the winning solution is determined, the solver that proposed it must execute the intent. The solver makes the necessary state transitions to the respective destination chains.

8. Once the intent solution is executed, proof of success is sent to the rollup and the source chain via IBC.

This architectural flow is summarized below:

The layers involved in this architecture are shown below:

To summarize, the intents layer sits at the top of the Mantis architecture. Here, intents are submitted and solvers compete to provide the best solution. The next layer is the blockspace marketplace, which we are developing to make blockspace allocation more efficient. This addresses the market between searchers who need blockspace and validators that have blockspace to offer. Below this is the commitments layer, which supports this marketplace between searchers and validators by ensuring that both parties uphold their end of the deal (such as through staking, bonding, or prepayment). This is a focus for us as it helps balance the dynamic between blockspace and orderflow; blockspace can be efficiently allocated for all orderflow on Mantis and beyond. Finally, this is all underpinned by the settlement layer, where orders are carried out for final settlement over the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol.

Now, let’s explore how all of the RFPs fit into this architecture:

As shown in the above diagram, our RFPs (the dark green boxes) can fit into general categories (the light green boxes), each relating to different components of our architecture. These categories are:

1. Rollups: Rollups are a great way to enhance scalability and speed. However, rollups are largely limited to the Ethereum ecosystem. Even in the Ethereum space, rollups are still relatively new. Thus, we aim to explore how to further improve rollups, such as our own Solana Virtual Machine rollup (the Mantis rollup).

2. Intents: Intents are being hailed as a solution for improving the user experience and user outcomes, allowing the user to put in a more general outline for a transaction, with the details being filled in by entities like solvers. This optimizes execution and simplifies the user experience, especially cross-chain. WIth Mantis and other intent-centric architectures emerging, it is important to explore how to best implement these architectures.

3. Solvers: In intent-centric architectures, solvers often compete to provide users with the best solutions. To provide users with best execution, it is important for these solvers and their solutions to be optimized. Thus, this is an area of research focus relevant to Mantis.

4. Maximal Extractable Value (MEV): Our goal is to maximize overall welfare of users and other actors within blockchain systems, and we predict MEV to be an externality arising from these efforts. Thus, our goal is neither to minimize nor to maximize MEV. Instead, we aim to not just describe MEV, but to consider who creates these opportunities and who benefits from them. Often, MEV provides various actors within the blockchain ecosystem with the opportunity to enhance their earnings. This can be used as an incentive for entities contributing positively to systems like Mantis. Moreover, MEV frequently helps improve the efficiency of the space, such as by improving price alignment across various exchanges. For these reasons, we are exploring MEV, especially in its understudied cross-chain context.

5. Preconfirmations & Blockspace allocation: Preconfrimations (preconfs) for rollup blocks offer an opportunity to speed up transactions for users and protocols. Yet, existing preconf mechanisms are largely in their early development stages. To address this, we are working to understand how preconfs can be best implemented for rollups like the Mantis rollup in a manner that is secure, efficient, and fast. Also relevant to block efficiency, is the topic of blockspace allocation. Blockspace is a highly desirable commodity on blockchains. However, blockspace allocation is often very inefficient. Thus, we are exploring pre-reservation of blocks cross-chain in order to improve the allocation of blockspace.

Combined, these categories allow Mantis to research and subsequently improve all areas of our tech stack. Ultimately, this will enable us to deliver the best products to users and other DeFi participants, furthering our vision of chain-abstracted, intent-centric DeFi.